Home composting

Composting is an inexpensive and natural process that transforms your kitchen and garden waste into a valuable and nutrient rich food for your garden as well as reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill, which helps to improve the environment.

Purchase a bin and get composting

Slough residents can purchase discounted compost bins and other products by visiting the Get Composting website.

Composting guide.

What to put in your compost bin

You need the right balance of greens and browns for a good compost.

Greens

  • Tea bags
  • Grass cuttings
  • Vegetable peelings, salad leaves and fruit scraps
  • Old flowers and nettles
  • Coffee grounds and filter paper
  • Spent bedding plants
  • Rhubarb leaves
  • Young annual weeds (e.g. chickweed)

Browns

  • Crushed egg shells
  • Egg and cereal boxes
  • Corrugated cardboard and paper (scrunched up)
  • Toilet and kitchen roll tubes
  • Garden prunings
  • Twigs and hedge clippings
  • Straw and hay
  • Bedding from vegetarian pets
  • Ashes from wood, paper and lump wood charcoal
  • Sawdust and wood chippings
  • Wool
  • Woody clippings
  • Cotton threads and string (made from natural fibre)
  • Feathers
  • Vacuum bag contents
  • Old natural fibre clothes (cut into small pieces)
  • Tissues, paper towels and napkins
  • Shredded confidential documents
  • Corn cobs and stalks

Never put these in your bin

  • Cooked vegetables, meat and dairy products.
  • Diseased plants.
  • Recently treated garden waste (e.g. weedkiller).
  • Pet waste.
  • Nappies.
  • Things which are not biodegradable such as plastic and metals.